Category Archives: Chicago Parking Meter

Residents of a low income high rise in Uptown cite “gang activity” to get city to remove parking meters. Photo credit: Mina Bloom/DNA Info.

A handful of metered parking spots on North Sheridan in causing an uproar in Uptown.

So much so, the public “outrage” has inspired City Hall and Ald. James Cappleman (46th) to agree to remove the meters according to DNA Info.

The six metered spaces are in front of a low income high rise and were re-installed after about a year hiatus due to contstruction. But according to residents, since they cannot afford to pay the meters, they’ve been forced to park their vehicles in non-metered areas. Unfortunately, those spots allegedly reside in a gang controlled area.

A recent flier from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s election campaign is attacking Ald. Bob Fioretti for his votes on the parking meter lease deal.

Back in 2008, Ald. Fioretti voted for the former Mayor Richard Daley’s infamous parking meter lease deal–an agreement that sold the city’s metered parking spaces for a fraction of their worth.

It was a vote he regretted and which inspired him to vote against a revision of the meter deal that Emanuel pushed in 2013. The revised deal did get Chicago Parking Meters, LLC to drop tens of millions of dollars in claims against the city. But in return, Emanuel allowed most metered spaces to extend enforcement hours until 10PM–a two hour increase, and meters in River North to be fed until midnight.

This day he sits barefoot in the back of a pickup truck parked on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, playing guitar and singing to a constantly changing audience of hipsters, commuters, parents and children walking by.

Picker had been playing in public for years, mainly in Boston’s Harvard Square where he saw many street musicians getting hassled by police for not having a permit. While Picker was smart enough to get his own busker license, he’s always been uncomfortable with the idea that musicians couldn’t just entertain people in public without the formality of a license.

So after recording a new album, he got the urge to get back on the street to share his music, and decided do a tour playing in public in all 50 states. But he was concerned about the possibility of getting on the wrong side of local law enforcement.

A sticker on the front of meter payboxes in Lakeview remind drivers they now have to pay to park on Sundays.

It took over a year, but 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney finally was able to restore paid metered parking to Lakeview on Sundays.

Drivers had to start paying the meters Sunday, September 28th at metered parking spaces on major streets like Clark, Halsted, Broadway, Belmont, Southport and others from 10 AM until 8 PM. Monday through Saturday meters must be fed from 8 AM until 10 PM in most areas.

The alderman told DNA Info a few weeks ago, the move was necessary to promote turnover of parking spaces to allow more people to find parking to shop in Lakeview.

“Saturday and Sunday are the No. 1 and 2 days of economic activity in the ward,” Tunney said. “We need the turnover specifically on those busiest days.

EDITOR’S NOTE:This is a post reprinted from last years (and recycled from some earlier years as well). But, a nutty website like this focusing on parking issues certainly cannot ignore such a red letter day in history like today. Special thanks to our friend Sluggo for reminding us of this very special historical anniversary.

As you dig through your pockets for quarters to pay for your parking spot today, you have an additional reason to curse your parking meter.

Today, for urban motorists everywhere, this day could be labeled an anniversary of evil.

Because this day in 1935, the very first parking meter was installed at the corner of First Street and Robinson Avenue, in downtown Oklahoma City, OK.

Workers for CPM erect one of the 42,000 signs needed citywide for the ParkChicago mobile pay to park system.

The city’s highly touted new pay-by-phone parking meter app is being rolled out across the city, but hundreds of drivers have been ticketed even after correctly using the app to pay their meters.

City officials confirm that 317 drivers using the recently released ParkChicago pay-by-phone app have reported receiving tickets for an expired-meter violation — even though there was still time on the meter — in the first two months since the app’s rollout began in May.

Chicago Parking Meters spokesman Scott Burnham said only a small percentage of parkers who used the app have gotten tickets, although he didn’t say how many times the app had been used overall to pay meters.

The city has issued 81,868 expired-meter tickets to all parkers citywide since the app became available, although most of those went to parkers using the pay boxes on the street.

The ParkChicago app debuted to great fanfare in a West Loop pilot test in mid-April. It allows drivers to use their Android or iOS smartphones to pay their parking meter without having to walk to the parking meter paybox.

“The response to ParkChicago has been very positive as you can tell by the number of drivers who have signed up in just a short amount of time,” said CPM spokesperson Scott Burnham. “Our customers obviously like the ease and convenience of the app, which allows them to avoid a trip to the meter box and eliminates the need of having to walk back to their vehicle to place a parking receipt on their dashboard. It also gives them added flexibility by enabling them to extend their time remotely so they don’t have to rush to get back before their time expires.”